Down to Nothing, Up to You
by lightbulbee
Summary: Maia Black had it all. Amazing parents, trusty friends, perfect grades, boy she loved. He was the first one who left. Her best friend followed him. And now her mom is gone. Her world fell apart, but it s not messed up enough, not for certain people. As she s trying to make a piece with her own demons, some people just can t take no as an answer. Among others one wolf who imprinted.
1. Going Down

**Hi everyone. So this is my new story from Twilight world and the first one written in English. Please note that I am not a native speaker, so there can be mistakes, but I am doing my best. **

**_Down to Nothing, Up to You_**** is story about (at the beginning of the story) 15 y.o. Maia Black, who is a niece of Billy Black, so she is Jacob and Collin´s cousin. After Maia´s mother dies, she struggles a lot and eventually finds her way of dealing with it – a way not everyone like. Especially the wolfs, who care about her more than she is willing to admit. The question is simple: will the love of her brother, cousins and the wolf that imprinted on her be enough to save her? Because she got down fast, left with nothing and no one to care about. And getting up isn´t nearly that easy.**

**I will really appreciate any reactions! If you have any questions, write me a PM.**

Thirty seconds. That's how long it took to shatter my life into pieces so small I doubt I could ever put them back together. Now, ten days later, I am standing here, my mother's coffin in front of me. This day shouldn't have happened in at least forty years. It isn't fair. It isn't right.

"Maia, honey, I am so sorry. Your mom was an amazing person, you know. I will miss her so much." Sue Clearwater was one of the very few people who really meant what they said. She was my mom's friend. She knew her, knew her sins and still liked her. She cared about her more than her own family.

"Thanks Aunt Sue. I am glad you made it. She would've wanted you here." Honestly, I was pretty sure Sue won't come. Yes, she was one of my mother's closest friends, but she had some problems with her daughter. Mom would understand that.

"You know I am here if you need anything, right? You're welcome any time." Yeah, now this one I didn't believe. I know she was just trying to be nice. To be a good friend to her deceased co-worked. But I was sick of all those lies. I didn't need compassion. I didn't need their pitying looks.

"I am glad to hear that, aunt. I'll see you around." Done. I could see the relieve in her eyes. Another kid to look after is not what she needs right now. She has her own problems with her own kids.

I looked around. There was so many people, most of them being absolute strangers to me. My dad stood next to me, within reach of my hand. He nodded on every condolence, but I could tell he wasn't really paying attention. He was like this since that night. I couldn't blame him, since I haven't been much better. Mom was the love of his life. The right one. I knew better than anyone else how much he loved and cared about her.

Then he livened up, his face brightened in mild smile. I followed his look and froze. There he was - a middle-aged man in wheelchair, so resembling my mom in his sadness. Right behind him stood - oh my God, was that really Jacob?! - my cousin, apparently. Yeah, it was hard to recognize him on the first sight. Last time I saw him was... well, it has been couple weeks. He had longer hair and less muscles back then. I´ve heard he was sick just before I stopped going to school. Now he looked so differently – like he was taking steroids. But his father didn´t seem concerned about it, so there had to be some reason.

I turned back to my father in disbelief. What the heck? How did they dare to show up on her funeral like nothing had happened? Like we were one big, cohesive family? Like they actually felt sorry for what happened? How did they get "I am sorry for your loss" from all of those strangers around me? They had no right. They stopped being her family the moment they banished her.

"Maia…" dad reached out for me, but I stepped back. He gave me a pleading smile. I shook my head. "Please hon. She would´ve wanted them here." Would she? Would she want the people who abandoned her because of one bad decision to get to say their goodbyes? Hell yes. She was always too kind. That doesn´t mean I have to want them here too.

"Whatever dad." I could felt their eyes on me, but I refused to repay it and turned my back on them. Those people were strangers to me.

As I turned back to the coffin, in the blink of an eye I saw familiar figure. I needed to calm down first and as I did, I looked again. It was Kim, one of my classmates. She used to be my best friend. Now we barely said hello to each other. And she wasn´t alone. The hand wrapped around her hips belonged to Jared Cameron. Her boyfriend. The boy she had a crush on since our seventh grade. _The boy you used to like._

I couldn´t look at them much longer. It was too much happiness radiating from them, even if they weren´t doing anything inappropriate. And to be honest, Jared´s face wasn´t exactly what I wanted to see. So I turned my back on them too. And I hit against the last person I expected to be here. My half-brother. Why wasn´t I expected him to come, that is the simplest story of my life – I had never spoken one word with him. In my entire life.

I was going to say sorry. Really, I was. But this was the last straw. Everything was falling apart. This was the day I was supposed to say my last goodbye. The day everyone close to her were supposed to say their goodbyes. Instead of that, her funeral was full of people who either didn´t know her or didn´t care about her.

He was saying something. I can´t remember what, but I know he was. I stood there, shaking my head like an idiot, eyes full of tears and refusing to listen. Instead, I started retreating. I realize now that it must have looked weird. That I gave them a performance. That I was disrespectful to my mother. But I didn´t care then.

I stumbled on my high heels. It was an obstacle for me, so I kicked them off and ran. I heard my dad´s screams. And it was hurting me, but I still ran.

I don´t know how long did it took me to get outside the populated area. But when I stopped, I found myself standing on the beach, staring at the water. It was so soothing it made me cry. Because I didn´t wanted the pain to go away. I deserved it. After all, it was me who killed her.


	2. Hear and Judge

**Hi guys, so here I am with the second chapter of Maia Black´s story, this time from Embry´s POV. I´d like to thank for your likes, follows and reviews and I really hope there will be some for this chapter as well. **

**I realize it´s kind of short and I am sorry, but I am not experienced enough in English to write longer stories. Maybe someday. Oh, and hey, I started to write this Falling Skies fanfiction (it´s Ben/OC), only in Czech so far. But what do you think, should I translate it? Would you read it? Let me know!**

**P.S.: I´ve already started to write something like sequel to Down to Nothing, Up to You. The title is Unconditionally, it´s about another wolf and his imprint and… that´s all you need to know (but because I am nice, I´ll tell you I finished a chapter in which Maia plays a big role yesterday ****J****)**

Chapter Two – Hear and Judge

"I can´t believe she´s so selfish!" Embry heard the deep voice of his pack brother way before he reached Emily´s house. He sighed. What was it this time? Was Leah vicious again? Or did he spoke to one of his sisters? No way would he have said it about his beloved Bella.

"Hi Ems." He greeted his alpha's fiancé with a slight smile. Then, when she wasn´t watching, he quickly took one of the muffins she made.

"Don´t think I didn´t see it, Embry. Now drop your bag and go to your brothers. Sam wants to talk to all of you." He didn´t even tried to look guilty. Was it his fault that Emily made such a good muffins?

As he entered the living room, all heads turned to him. His hand froze half-way to his opened mouth. He realized it as Paul burst out laughing. "Ok guys, not that funny. What´s going on?" he could say it was something serious just from the glimpse of Jacob. His face was red with anger and he was shaking. Jacob, who had the best control over his wolf of them all, except for Sam. Crab, that must´ve been bad.

"My cousin´s going on." Said the young Black through clenched teeth. Embry raised his eyebrow in confusion. He heard Jacob talking about some girl before, didn´t he? And Collin definitely wasn´t girl. Then he noticed Sam and his patient look. Sure. She cousin. Maia. Today was the funeral.

"What happened?" he sat on the armrest of Jared´s armchair which hadn´t really enthuse him. But Embry didn´t care. He was thinking about what Jake said before. Maia being selfish. It didn´t sound like her.

"She panicked when she saw Billy and Jacob. And then took off after crashing into Sam. Before the whole funeral even began." To his surprise, it was Jared who gave him the answer. And all Embry did was nodding. He couldn´t really blame her, even though she could wait after the funeral.

"And the reason she is selfish is because…" he purposely didn´t finish the sentence. Sam gave him a warning look, but Embry didn´t care. First of all, Jacob really annoyed all of them lately with this whole Bella thing. Now it was their turn to piss him off. Second of all, he felt like he should stand up for her since neither Sam nor Jared were defending her. After all, there was a big possibility that she was his half-sister.

"Because she ruined the whole thing. This was her mother´s funeral, for God´s sake. And she just took off before it could even started just because she is hypersensitive. Dad was weird because of it the whole time."

"Yeah, Jake, try to look at it from her view. I bet it isn´t easy for her. She was always so close with her mom, maybe it was just too much to handle in that moment. You don´t realize she haven´t seen your family in at least months, maybe even years." Jared nodded to it and after a while, so did Sam. It was him who ended this discussion.

"Alright, boys. I think that´s it. Just one thing. Thomas told me she´s coming back to school next week. I want you to watch her and if you´ll notice anything weird or unusual, you´ll tell me immediately. It´s just a strange feeling, but I want to be sure nothing bad happens to her. Are we clear?" He looked on every single one of them. And they all nodded. But Embry noticed how hesitating Jacob was. God, that guy was such a hypocrite.

She really showed up on Monday. Since she was a year lower, the first time Embry saw her was lunch break. She looked awful. There wasn´t any nicer way to say it. Bags under once beautiful chocolate eyes, vacant look, ruffled hair. She moved like a robot.

As a black-haired girl approached her, Embry watched Jared jump up. He realized quickly that it was Kim, so he just rolled his eyes. Jared was so overprotective… like Maia could actually hurt Kim. Yet he pricked his ears up.

"I know we haven´t talked for a while, but I want you to know that I am here if you need me. You know Emmie was like a second mom to me." Bang. Kim went too far. All of them were now tensed, well, except for Paul. He never worried about anything. But Quil, Jacob, Jared, Embry, they were all waiting for any sign of Maia going lunatic. Luckily, it never happened. She raised her eyes to look at Kim and then got up. And walked away. Just like that. Jared immediately went to Kim and hugged her, wiping the tears off.

"What happened? I haven´t heard Maia say anything." Paul frowned and Embry slap him on the head.

"That´s it, moron. She didn´t." He kept watching her till she went through the door and then turned back to his brothers. Jared and Kimm were now sitting next to Quil, Kim still saddened. Jared whispered something to her ear and kissed her. She looked back to the door where Maia left just few moments ago.

"I know. It´s just… seeing her like that, it actually hurts. She used to be so happy and full of joy. Now it´s like she is a totally different person. I know we haven´t been exactly on a good terms lately, but we used to be best friends. I should be there for her in times like this." Well, everyone knew this story. It wasn´t pretty, but there was nothing any of them could do to help her. Since Maia didn´t know about the pack and everything it included, they couldn´t explain her that Kim didn´t hurt her on purpose.

"It´s not your fault she pushes you away. You can´t help those who don´t want your help, Kim. I know she is stubborn. She´s Black, after all. There´s nothing you can do." This time it was Jacob who talked. Embry started to be really mad at his pack brother. Jacob acted like that girl was some stranger. But she wasn´t. She was his cousin. Yes, she had a brother, but since it was forbidden for him to be in touch with her when they were younger, she didn´t actually know him. And she had no desire to get to know him now. Hell, Embry was probably her half-brother too. But it wasn´t like he could tell her "Hi, well, I just thought you should know that you and I probably have the same father since he passed me a werewolf gene."

"Not that jerk. Please, not him." Embry followed Jared´s look and to his surprise, he was looking at Jordan Prickle. One of the biggest assholes in this school. He was a sophomore like them. Embry had like two common classes with him, but man, that guy was so annoying.

"What about him?" he asked. And he didn´t like the answer he got.

"I don´t know yet. But I heard him say Maia. That can´t end up good." If he only knew.


	3. Choices We Make

First week back in school turned out to be my worst nightmare. Everyone kept looking at me like I was going to break down any moment. Well, here´s the news. I wasn´t. Not because of mom. But maybe, if they plan to act like this for a little longer, I might go psychopathic. Because they´re driving me insane.

I skipped school on Friday. Not gonna lie and say it was too much for me to handle. But I haven´t said my goodbye. So instead of going to school, I went to the cemetery. It was cloudy and definitely going to rain, but I didn´t care. As I approached mom´s grave, I saw a fresh pink carnations on it. I frowned. I knew for sure dad didn´t put them there, since he always gave her lilies – her favorite flowers. Someone else brought them.

"Hi mom." I talked to the gravestone. I know it´s crazy, but I needed to tell her. "So, I know you are probably mad at me because of the funeral. Came here to tell you I am sorry." The ground was wet, but I sat anyway. "You know, ever since the hospital, I knew this day would come. The doctors told us there is only five percent chance you´ll wake up. But I didn´t believe them. I told them they´re wrong. That you will wake up. That you can win this battle. Because you are a fighter. You always were. But most of all, I didn´t want to admit to myself that me and dad will have to live without you. I couldn´t image it. And look at us now. Here we are, doing the best we can… while you are in some better place, where you don´t have to worry about anything. And I want to hate you for that so much. That you left us here. Me, dad. He haven´t talked to me since that day. He misses you so much, I think he won´t make it without you. But that´s the thing, mom. You left. You can´t take him away from me too." I felt the tears on my cheeks. But since there wasn´t anyone to see them, I didn´t bother to wipe them off.

I stared at the gravestone for the next two hours. And I would be staring longer, but someone interrupted me. First, I felt a strange hand on my shoulder. Then there was a familiar face right in front of me.

"Maia, do you hear me?" Deep voice woke me up. I realized that the face belonged to Seth Clearwater. He looked really worried so I nodded, in spite of not knowing what to. Relieve flashed through his eyes.

"Of course I hear you. Now, take the hand off of me, please." I didn´t say it rudely, but he looked hurt. Fortunately, I didn´t feel the need to apologize. "And now if you excuse me, I have to go." Not that I waited for his permission. I stood up and headed off to the exit.

Even from the distance I saw the group hanging around, group I knew. I had no desire to talk to these people. It was one moron next to another. Yet when they called my name, I turned to them. To their leader, Jordan, to be specific.

"What do you want, douchebag?" He laughed. That idiot actually laughed.

"Why so roughly, sweetie?" I frowned at that and he winked at me. God, he is so weird. "Hey, I didn´t mean it that way. Come on, get your pretty little ass here. I have something that can help you." And now he didn´t even make a sense. When I did not moved, he sighed and came to me. I didn´t panic, but it wasn´t comfortable either, so I took a step back. He stopped.

"I don´t need help, and certainly not yours, thank you very much." I said it to offend him, but apparently it wasn´t enough.

"Oh, come on, honey. First of all, I bet you´re looking for a way to forget what happen. Can´t blame you. Been there, remember?" It wasn´t the whole true. Jordan´s parents left him because they were drug addicts, not because they died. But, well, in some ways it was similar. He waved somewhere behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see what he meant.

"If you don´t need help, then why do you have a babysitter?" Mockery in Jordan´s voice made me frown at Seth. And it was probably the reason I sighed.

"Ok, what do you have on your mind?" The victorious smile on his face meant he planned this whole thing, but I realized it much later.


	4. That Weird Thing

**Hi everyone. So, after such a long time, is there still anyone reading this story? If yes, let me know. I´d be happy to know there is still someone to write for. As usually, I´ll appreciate any reviews.**

Chapter Four - That Weird Thing

Since that one moment, everything went to hell. And surprisingly, I didn´t care. At first, I was hanging out with Jordan and his group after school. They all were pretty much idiots, but as it turned out, it wasn´t a bad thing at all. Because it meant that no one was asking me how I was doing, no one was worried about my mental breakdown. And it was nice.

About two weeks later, something weird happen. When I got back to school, I heard other people talking about the other sensation (the first was my mom´s death) – the La Push Gang. It consisted of the people I would never guess to get along. Apparently, their leader was my half-brother, Sam. Few months earlier, I didn´t have any opinion on him. I mean, everyone knew he was my half-brother. It was a public secret here in La Push. But I never talked to him, never had any kind of relationship with him. And because he was older than me, I didn´t meet him too often.

Of course, La Push is small, so occasionally, we met in a store and places like that, but every time we saw each other, we just went in opposite direction. Then I met him at aunt Sue´s few times, when he was dating Leah. But in general, I was trying to avoid him. When I was younger, I didn´t understand why we can´t talk. Hang out. Go to each other places. We were siblings, after all. He was my only sibling… as far as I know.

The older I grew, the better I understood. It wasn´t his fault back then. But hell, when he was adult, he didn´t have to follow his mother´s restrictions. He could at least try to get to know me. But he didn´t. So I accepted it. And then this thing with Leah happened. He broke up with her to be with her cousin, Emily. After that, I made my opinion. He was a son of a bitch.

So, at the beginning, Sam made this gang along with Paul, other older boy from school. Now knowing what kind of person Sam was, I wasn´t surprised by that at all. Paul was always known as the man-whore of La Push. He was a douchebag. Then Jared joined them. That was about a half year ago. And it broke my heart.

I had a crush on Jared since kindergarten. My best friend had a crush on him since seventh grade. A lot of girls in my class wanted to date him. And I was the lucky one. Although I was only fourteen back then, it was my first serious relationship. I fell in love with him so quickly, I should have known it won´t last. And it didn´t. We were happy for couple of months. Then he started to be weird, moody. We even had this time when we stopped seeing each other for few weeks. Back then, it was like the end of the world for me. And then everything started to look good again. He came to my place in the middle of the night, throwing rocks on my window. He said he loved me. I was so happy that after he left, I went to wake up my mom to tell her. And she was happy too. How could she not be? She was my best friend. Best friends are happy for your happiness.

Two days later, I saw Jared jumping down from the cliffs with Sam and Paul. When I asked him about that, he turned into a totally different person. We had a big argument and he broke up with me. I spent the whole weekend in bed, crying. Kim was there with me, trying to make it easier. She bought tons of chocolate and we were watching crappy movies. Why she went out every few hours, I found out on Monday in school. She was holding Jared´s hand, looking like the happiest girl in the world.

I hated everyone. Most of them all I hated Sam. He took from me the chance to have a sibling. Then Jared. Then Jared took Kim from me. And then my mom died. Maybe it sounds bitter. I was fourteen, well, fifteen. I had every right to be like that.

Anyway, after Jared, other boys joined the gang. My cousin Jacob, his besties Quil and Embry. Seth. And I´ve heard something about Leah hanging out with them.

Yeah, it sounds crazy. I know. But that´s the thing about La Push. Without the craziness, this place wouldn´t last.

So that is the story about the origin of the La Push Gang. There was also other gang – Jordan´s. And I was a part of it without even realizing.

Now that weird thing. Like I said, it happened about two weeks later. Jordan was waiting for me outside of school. I had no idea what he planned for that day. It was Friday, so we were probably going to hang out on the beach the whole night with a lot of booze. So the minute the bell announced the end of school, I literally ran out of my class to get out as soon as possible.

I went straight to him as soon as I saw him. He send me a kiss and I smiled. I wasn´t naïve or stupid. This was only a charade. I wasn´t in love with him, which was exactly what most of the people in the school thought. He conformed me by not asking stupid questions and trying to be someone he wasn´t. I knew he didn´t love me. I was just another pretty girl he could occasionally lay his hands on.

"Hi sweetheart. Ready to go?" Like some gentleman from old movies, he opened me the door from his old Toyota. I took the front passenger seat, as it became my habit. On the back seats were sitting another two girls. I hung out with them few times, but had no idea what their names were. Yeah, I know. I was becoming one of those brainless girl.

"Hi." Didn´t need to say anything else. They were as interested in me as I was in them – not at all. I waited for Jordan to get to the car and then asked him about that night plans.

"Jason is having a party at the beach, so we´ll go there. And then I have a surprise for you. You´re gonna love it." Like hell. I couldn´t think of one thing Jordan could surprise me with. Not that I was going to tell him. After all, spending the night with him meant getting to the party, which meant getting some booze.

"Stupid! Stupid, stupid, crazy bitch!" even now, few feet away from the house, I could still hear angry male voice. Guess that kick really hurt him. Good. He should have keep his hands where they belonged.

"Jason, what the fuck happened?" another male voice, this time Jordan´s.

"That little bitch kicked me in balls. I am gonna kill her!" Heard some bangs and shouts and then it was quiet. I didn´t want to try my luck, so I took a full cup and walked away. To the forest, which may not be the best idea, since I was kind of drunk already, but who the hell cared.

I was walking few minutes with no intention to get somewhere. Just wanted to run from the craziness in the beach house. By the time I got to the meadow, it was so dark I couldn´t even see the tip of my fingers in front of me, but there was more light because the lack of the trees.

Admitting I had no idea where I was, I sat on the cold ground and finished the cup. When I looked up, the sky was clear. Without any cloud. I could clearly see all the stars. Even the North Star. Moms favorite. I wanted to believe so much that that´s where she is. On that star, watching over me from over the skies. But that wasn´t truth. She was gone. She couldn´t see me anymore. She couldn´t know what I was doing. She couldn´t be disappointed from me.

"Right mom? No matter what I do, you won´t be around to see it. So it doesn´t matter. I could get a scholarship for Harvard or end up as a cleaner. Whatever. This or that, you´re not here to see it anymore, so what the hell? And dad doesn´t care. I could drink myself to death, and he still wouldn´t care. He´s a robot. He has no heart. ´Cause you stole it. That wasn´t very maternal, don´t you think? Leave me not only without a mom, but also without dad?" I dropped the empty cup and started to laugh. I wasn´t crazy, just really drunk. That may explain the weird thing.

I heard some noise, so when I calmed down enough to stop laughing, I looked to that direction. And I saw something. It was big. Really big. Had to blink few times to make sure I am not dreaming. It looked like overgrowth dog. Holly shit, was that a wolf? I heard some people talking about a growth of a wolf population around here, but how lucky would I have to be to actually cross my way with it? Oh, apparently, not too much.

My first clear thought was to run. But my instinct told me to stay. Yeah, I have a little self-destructive inclinations. It didn´t move. Just stood there, in the shadows of the trees, watching me. It seem to me like this animal was intelligent. I would swear I saw a curiosity in its eyes. Not just that. It was something that made me keep a short eyecontact with it.

"Ok, wolfie. Either you can eat me, or you can turn around and go back. But do something, for the Gods sake! You know how depressing this is?" Hey, I was drunk. And really nervous. The animal made some sound. To me, it sounded like a laugh, but again, I was drunk. Maybe there was no wolf and I had hallucination. Or I fell asleep before and that was a dream.

It came to the light. Well, it was still dark, but now that the wolf wasn´t standing in the shadows, I could see it had grey fur with black blurs. It made one step towards me. My heart was beating so fast I should have had a heart attack in that moment. Apparently, the animal somehow smelled my fear, because it lean its head a little bit and made this face you can see with puppies. If I wasn´t scared to death in that moment, I would laugh so hard I would cry.

"Well, I guess you´re going to eat me. But I have to warn you… after all that booze I won´t taste good. Really. Maybe you should find some other crazy girl wondering through the woods alone, in the middle of the night. Alright? I am not a tasty dinner. Not today." To my surprise, it turned around and walked away, like it understood me. When it was far enough so I didn´t see it or hear it, I started to laugh like crazy.

I have no idea what happened after that. I was probably too shocked with my close reunion with death, cause I don´t remember how did I get home. But I woke up in my bed in the morning. But dozen of missed calls from Jordan. And opened window. That´s weird. Why would sneak in through the window, when dad wasn´t home? An even if he was, I always used the front door. He didn´t care where I was or when I came home. As long as I came. At least I hope so.

**So, anyone.. you know which wolf that was?** :)


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